I had a quiet classmate back in elementary who, during one particular week, always wore a Cub Scout cap to cover his head. I remember a few students making small jokes about him being “pahak” under the blue thing but I thought little of it. Way back then, just as I am now, I never really cared much about what one’s fancy was. I just let it go. Though less timid now, I was careful then not to initiate attention lest I be embarrassed. Being the center of attention, as in being made the laughing stock, was for me, a nightmare. And it still is.
Those years in the 60s were as old school as you’d imagine old school to be. It wasn’t at all surprising that, every student (except for a few rich kids who were spared) felt a feudal bond with some teachers who were quick with the hand and overly strict as a lord. Naturally, under such conditions, some became the object of either ridicule or unwanted attention.
As it is, a blue cap prominently stood out in the middle of rows upon rows of white-uniformed elementary students during one morning’s flag ceremony, especially from the vantage point of one who stood in front, elevated by the platform where the flag pole was. In one swift motion, the grade six teacher swooped down from that perch like a hawk and without fanfare, snatched the cap from my classmate’s head. At once, amid shock and laughter from those nearby, my classmate, in tears angrily and defiantly shot back at the teacher and snatched his cap back. In one swift motion, he put his cap back on, but not before the teacher and a few of us saw a large patch of hair missing and in its place, a bandaged wound. Embarrassed, the teacher walked back to the front while a few among us, now ashamed at their reaction, shifted their gaze elsewhere. Only then did we hear, his family had been one of the victims of a city fire but he has remained quiet about it.
There is this popular saying about everyone having a story of their own and that we never know what each of us are going through. This is why, we should always strive to be kind. I remember my late mom, on several occasions, reminding me simply, to ‘be kind’.
It’s only now that I guess, that must have just been the abbreviated message of what she really wanted to put across.
Nowadays, bad-mouthing and ridiculing other people have become common fare, especially in social media and in the safety of their own homes. This attitude of becoming emboldened, almost faceless and anonymously protected behind the wall of the internet, has become almost like a culture. One only has to read through any post or article to see what I mean. Loose lipped and quick on the draw, personal insults are flung, even at total strangers while more calculated criticisms and pieces written by so-called trolls dot the web, as though they were the new badge of entitlement.
